Norway Inflation

Norway: Inflation hits 14-month high in December

January 10, 2013

In December, consumer prices rose 0.3% over the previous month, which followed the 0.1% increase tallied in November. According to Statistics Norway, the monthly rise mainly reflected a strong increase in housing, water, electricity and fuel prices - in particular for electricity -, which totally offset a drop in food and non-alcoholic product prices. As a result, annual headline inflation rose from 1.1% in November to 1.4% in December, the highest rate observed since October 2011. In 2012, inflation averaged 0.8%, which was down from the 1.3% recorded in 2011.

In contrast, the core consumer price index, which excludes taxes, fees and energy prices, fell 0.1% in December (November: 0.0% year-on-year), driving annual core inflation down from 1.3% in November to 1.1%.

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Norway Economic News

In Q3, the economy expanded a seasonally-adjusted 0.7% from a quarter earlier, slowing markedly from the notable 1.1% growth recorded in Q2 but nonetheless confirming that the economic recovery was still firmly underway.

According to Statistics Norway, industrial production fell by a seasonally-adjusted 0.5% from the previous month in September, contrasting August’s revised 0.5% increase (previously reported: -0.1% month-on-month).
September’s result was driven by a large month-on-month decline in the extraction and related services sector—the largest industrial sector in Norway—but was moderated somewhat by growth in the manufacturing and electricity, gas and steam sectors.

According to Statistics Norway, industrial production fell by a seasonally-adjusted 0.1% from the previous month in August, contrasting July’s revised 1.1% rise (previously reported: +0.7% month-on-month).
August’s result was driven by a large month-on-month decline in the manufacturing sector, but tamed somewhat by growth in the extraction and related services sector—the largest industrial sector in Norway—and the electricity, gas and steam sector.